The Narrative Image

People look at my pictures and comment, “You must like to hike!” I usually hesitate to answer. I smile stupidly. I mean, I think I like to hike…but it sure seems like a slow way to get someplace. At least half of you reading, scattered along a particular bell shaped curve, won’t get this, but there comes a time when you realize you’ve passed your physical peak, and that you will never be as strong or fast or resilient as you used to be. Lately, when I find myself on a trail, I feel like…maybe up ahead… there is a younger faster version of me making good time. I’m trying hard to catch up, but I can’t. I just keep falling further and further behind. Frequently I stop and wipe the sweat from my forehead and pretend to take photographs while I catch my breath. Maybe one of the less obvious definitions of residual vanity is, “One who consciously regulates breathing while encountering oncoming hikers so as not to appear winded.” But no matter how far behind I get – no matter how pi...

Driving east of Pasco A cold wind blows – buffets the car like a boxer - seemingly inhospitable Migrating bushes recklessly play chicken with cars – end up as grill decorations - gather together at barbed wire fences - share tales of their exploits The land ripples and undulates as if it were water Postulate God. Does God watch the continents flow like we watch streams in the sand? Second-hand topsoil – courtesy of Montana? Silt and dust blown across half a continent and some significant portion of an epoch Palouse Falls State Park - Washington Mindlessly following gravity’s imperative, water probes faults and chips away at basalt barriers. On one hand friendly and supportive of life, water is three faced and fickle and remains god’s tool of choice for wiping the earth clean of humanity – though fire is certainly in the running. Magnificent floods spawned by an ice-age lake helped scour out this canyon to reveal early flows of lava – rivers of once...